Next fall and throughout the 2007/08 school year, Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics will begin celebrations for its silver jubilee -- 25 years of providing excellence in high school education in New York City. Students, parents, alumni, and community leaders will be invited to participate in many different events to recognize MCSM's 25th anniversary and to set the stage for the next 25 years.
Plans for next school year's Silver Jubilee are just beginning to take shape. Parents and caregivers, if you have any ideas or suggestions for activities or programs that would help recognize MCSM and its growing role in the East Harlem community, please post a comment to this blog entry, send an email to Steve Koss at mathman180@aol.com or to Parent Coordinator Julia Valentin at jvalentin@schools.nyc.gov, or call Julia at 347-563-5163.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Spring Events Calendar at MCSM
Spring will be a busy time at MCSM this year, as it is every year. There will be many student performances, as well as honors and awards celebrations. Listed below is a capsule summary of some of these events -- come and participate, support your kids and your school! Parents are invited, indeed welcomed, at any and all of these programs.
M - Monday, T- Tuesday, W - Wednesday, R - Thursday, F - Friday, Sa - Saturday, Su - Sunday
April 24 (T) – Induction of new members to the National Honor Society (evening)
April 25 (W) – UMOJA Poetry Slam
April 26 (R)– Student/Faculty Basketball Game and Canned Food Drive
May 3 (R) -- College Fair (2:00 - 5:00 pm)
May 8 (T) -- PTA Meeting (Library, 6:00)
May 17 (R) – Vocal and Instrumental Showcase in Room 280
May 18 (F) – Schoolwide Talent Show after school
May 19 (Sa) -- Spring Arts Showcase/Parents as Arts Partners (10:30 am)
May 24 (R) – 8th Annual ASR Science Symposium (5:00 - 8:00 pm)
May 30 (W) – Fashion Show after school in the gym
June 1 (F) – Drama Club evening presentation of “You Can’t Take It with You”
June 2 (Sa) – Drama Club afternoon presentation of “You Can’t Take It with You”
June 4 (M) – Sports and After-School Program Awards
June 5 (T) – Senior Awards Night
June 12 (T) -- New 9th Grade Orientation (evening)
June 22 (F) – Senior Prom
June 27 (W) – Graduation Ceremonies at Hunter College
M - Monday, T- Tuesday, W - Wednesday, R - Thursday, F - Friday, Sa - Saturday, Su - Sunday
April 24 (T) – Induction of new members to the National Honor Society (evening)
April 25 (W) – UMOJA Poetry Slam
April 26 (R)– Student/Faculty Basketball Game and Canned Food Drive
May 3 (R) -- College Fair (2:00 - 5:00 pm)
May 8 (T) -- PTA Meeting (Library, 6:00)
May 17 (R) – Vocal and Instrumental Showcase in Room 280
May 18 (F) – Schoolwide Talent Show after school
May 19 (Sa) -- Spring Arts Showcase/Parents as Arts Partners (10:30 am)
May 24 (R) – 8th Annual ASR Science Symposium (5:00 - 8:00 pm)
May 30 (W) – Fashion Show after school in the gym
June 1 (F) – Drama Club evening presentation of “You Can’t Take It with You”
June 2 (Sa) – Drama Club afternoon presentation of “You Can’t Take It with You”
June 4 (M) – Sports and After-School Program Awards
June 5 (T) – Senior Awards Night
June 12 (T) -- New 9th Grade Orientation (evening)
June 22 (F) – Senior Prom
June 27 (W) – Graduation Ceremonies at Hunter College
Proposed Changes to PTA Bylaws
At the April 17th PTA meeting, three changes to the Association's bylaws were presented. Votes to approve these changes will take place at the May 8th PTA meeting. The discussion below presents each of the three proposed changes.
1. Adding one more officer to the PTA Executive Board to engage more parents and to ensure an odd number of Board members and avoid ties in Board votes.
The current bylaws read as follows:
The officers of the association shall be: President or Co-Presidents (see bylaws provision below), Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer. The association must elect the mandatory core officers (President, Secretary, and Treasurer) in order to be a functioning PA. In the event that no eligible parent member is interested in running for the sole officer position, the association may take nominations for the positions of Co-Presidents. Co-Presidents must assume the duties of the President as outlined below. The term of office for Co-Presidents shall be for one year as outlined below.
The proposed wording reads as follows (changes in bold):
The officers of the association shall be: President or Co-Presidents (see bylaws provision below), Vice-President or Co-Vice Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer. The association must elect the mandatory core officers (President, Secretary, and Treasurer) in order to be a functioning PA. In the event that one or more parents is interested in running for the sole officer position, the association will take nominations for the positions of Co-Vice Presidents. In the event that no eligible parent member is interested in running for the sole officer position, the association may take nominations for the positions of Co-Presidents. In either case, the association shall strive to create an Executive Board consisting of five members (Co-Presidents, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer or President, Co-Vice Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer). Co-Presidents and Co-Vice Presidents must assume the duties of the President as outlined below. The term of office for Co-Presidents shall be for one year as outlined below.
2. PTA Membership Dues
The current bylaws read as follows:
Donations are not a requirement for membership, voting, or running for office. Each member shall be requested to make a voluntary donation of $10.00.
The proposed wording reads as follows (changes in bold):
Donations are not a requirement for membership, voting, or running for office. Each member shall be requested to make a voluntary donation as determined and reviewed annually by the Executive Board.
3. PTA Executive Board meeting schedule
The current bylaws read as follows:
Regularly scheduled meetings of the Executive Board shall be held monthly, September through June, on the fourth (4th) Tuesday of every month at 6:00 p.m., unless such date shall fall on a legal or religious holiday, in which case the meeting shall be held on the following or previous Tuesday.
The proposed wording reads as follows (changes in bold):
Meetings of the Executive Board shall be scheduled no less frequently than bi-monthly, September through June, on a day and time to be mutually established by a majority of the members of said Executive Board. This schedule mandates that the Executive Board meet formally at least five times during each school year.
1. Adding one more officer to the PTA Executive Board to engage more parents and to ensure an odd number of Board members and avoid ties in Board votes.
The current bylaws read as follows:
The officers of the association shall be: President or Co-Presidents (see bylaws provision below), Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer. The association must elect the mandatory core officers (President, Secretary, and Treasurer) in order to be a functioning PA. In the event that no eligible parent member is interested in running for the sole officer position, the association may take nominations for the positions of Co-Presidents. Co-Presidents must assume the duties of the President as outlined below. The term of office for Co-Presidents shall be for one year as outlined below.
The proposed wording reads as follows (changes in bold):
The officers of the association shall be: President or Co-Presidents (see bylaws provision below), Vice-President or Co-Vice Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer. The association must elect the mandatory core officers (President, Secretary, and Treasurer) in order to be a functioning PA. In the event that one or more parents is interested in running for the sole officer position, the association will take nominations for the positions of Co-Vice Presidents. In the event that no eligible parent member is interested in running for the sole officer position, the association may take nominations for the positions of Co-Presidents. In either case, the association shall strive to create an Executive Board consisting of five members (Co-Presidents, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer or President, Co-Vice Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer). Co-Presidents and Co-Vice Presidents must assume the duties of the President as outlined below. The term of office for Co-Presidents shall be for one year as outlined below.
2. PTA Membership Dues
The current bylaws read as follows:
Donations are not a requirement for membership, voting, or running for office. Each member shall be requested to make a voluntary donation of $10.00.
The proposed wording reads as follows (changes in bold):
Donations are not a requirement for membership, voting, or running for office. Each member shall be requested to make a voluntary donation as determined and reviewed annually by the Executive Board.
3. PTA Executive Board meeting schedule
The current bylaws read as follows:
Regularly scheduled meetings of the Executive Board shall be held monthly, September through June, on the fourth (4th) Tuesday of every month at 6:00 p.m., unless such date shall fall on a legal or religious holiday, in which case the meeting shall be held on the following or previous Tuesday.
The proposed wording reads as follows (changes in bold):
Meetings of the Executive Board shall be scheduled no less frequently than bi-monthly, September through June, on a day and time to be mutually established by a majority of the members of said Executive Board. This schedule mandates that the Executive Board meet formally at least five times during each school year.
Monday, April 2, 2007
What Is the Title I Issue at MCSM?
Parents of MCSM students may be hearing quite a bit about something called Title I in the coming months and into next year as well. This blog posting will try to explain what the Title I program is, how it affects MCSM, and what the PTA's and parents' roles are concerning how Title I is implemented at our children's school.
1. What Is Title I? Under the federal law that created the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, Congress included the creation of a special program called Title I. The purpose of this program is to provide extra money from the federal government, beyond the money budgeted for education by the States, to communities where the income level is below a certain "poverty level." These funds are intended to give extra help to students who are deemed to be "at risk" as defined by the New York State Education Department. In New York City, a school qualifies as a Title I recipient if the annual incomes of more than 60% of the students' families fall below this government-defined level.
2. How Does Title I Affect MCSM? In 2004, families of MCSM students were asked to complete forms that stated their annual income. All but about 90 families submitted those completed forms, and it turned out that 62% of the students at that time came from families whose yearly income was below the qualifying level. As a result, our school has received every year since then about $850,000 in extra, Title I funds; this is equal to about 10% of the budget money we receive from the NYC Department of Education. Next year (2007/2008), MCSM families will be asked to complete these income forms once again to determine whether our school still qualifies to receive Title I funds.
3. How Are the Title I Funds Used? In our first year as a Title I school in 2004/2005, MCSM was required to operate under a Title I subprogram called Targeted Assistance. The basic idea of Targeted Assistance is that the money provided under Title I must be dedicated only to students who are clearly identified as being "at risk." According to the NY State Education Department, "at risk" is defined as having scored either a 1 or a 2 in the student's 8th Grade Math or English Language Arts exams or having failed a NY State Regents exam. At MCSM, only a little more than 14% of all students meet one of these criteria. Since it was very difficult in the first year to determine how to spend $850,000 on tutoring and other special assistance activities for just 14% of the students, MCSM turned back unused about $250,000 for 2004/2005. The following year, this number was reduced to about $90,000, and this year it is expected to be somewhere between $50,000 and $75,000 unspent.
4. What Alternatives Does MCSM Have for Using Its Title I Funds? The NCLB legislation provides two ways for a school to manage its Title I funds. One of them, Targeted Assistance, limits the use of these funds only to students who meet one of the "failure criteria" described above. The other option requires the parents, through the PTA, and the teachers to vote for a change from Targeted Assistance to what is called the Schoolwide Program option. Under the Schoolwide Program approach, the school administration and staff would determine which students were at risk, and all those students would be eligible to receive extra tutoring and other academic support services funded from the Title I money. Notice that under the Schoolwide Program option, we would not be required to wait for a student to actually fail before he or she became eligible for extra, Title I funded support. Teachers could identify students at risk of failing -- before they failed -- and make sure they received this extra assistance. In addition, parents of all students would be eligible for parental support programs funded out of the Title I money, not just the parents of students who had already failed.
5. How Can MCSM Change to the Schoolwide Program Option? Every year, the Principal, the President of the PTA, and the MCSM Chapter Leader of the Teachers' Union (the UFT) are required to meet in the Spring to decide if there will be a vote on the Title I question. In the first year (Spring, 2005), the Teachers' Union representative decided against having a vote. Last year (Spring 2006), a vote was held in which parents voted unanimously in favor of the Schoolwide Program option. A majority of teachers voted for that program as well, but their margin was not sufficient to carry the vote and MCSM remained under the Targeted Assistance option. We are hoping that another vote will be scheduled again for this Spring. If a vote will be held, we will announce it here on the Parents' Information Center and include it in PTA meeting discussions and the first possible Parent Newsletter. For parents, the vote -- if it takes place -- would most likely occur at the May 8 PTA meeting. If the vote takes place, we urge all parents to come to the PTA meeting and vote in favor of the Schoolwide Program option; your PTA Executive Board supports this choice unanimously.
6. What Are Parents' Roles in the Title I Program? First, parents have an important voice in determining whether their school will operate under the Targeted Assistance or Schoolwide Program option. This is done through voting for one of the two approaches at the PTA meeting in which this vote is held.
Second, we are required to have two parents act as our Title I Representative and Alternate. At a PTA meeting earlier this year, we announced that Don Redish and Rajinder Singh had agreed to assume these responsibilities for the balance of this school year.
Third, the NCLB law states that at least one percent of a school's Title I funds are to be made available for parent training and education programs. These can range from computer training workshops to presentations on health and hygiene, parenting skills, time management, recognizing adolescent substance abuse, weight management (obesity as well as anorexia or bulimia), and many other topics that can help us all be better guardians of our children and better assistants for their academics. We are hoping that the MCSM parent community will see the first of these initiatives next year. In future PTA meetings, we will be soliciting your ideas for programs and topics that you would like to see addressed.
Title I is somewhat complicated, but it also creates wonderful opportunities for the school and the PTA to help our kids and our parents, too. We will work hard to keep you informed of these opportunities and how you can help. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at mathman180@aol.com.
1. What Is Title I? Under the federal law that created the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, Congress included the creation of a special program called Title I. The purpose of this program is to provide extra money from the federal government, beyond the money budgeted for education by the States, to communities where the income level is below a certain "poverty level." These funds are intended to give extra help to students who are deemed to be "at risk" as defined by the New York State Education Department. In New York City, a school qualifies as a Title I recipient if the annual incomes of more than 60% of the students' families fall below this government-defined level.
2. How Does Title I Affect MCSM? In 2004, families of MCSM students were asked to complete forms that stated their annual income. All but about 90 families submitted those completed forms, and it turned out that 62% of the students at that time came from families whose yearly income was below the qualifying level. As a result, our school has received every year since then about $850,000 in extra, Title I funds; this is equal to about 10% of the budget money we receive from the NYC Department of Education. Next year (2007/2008), MCSM families will be asked to complete these income forms once again to determine whether our school still qualifies to receive Title I funds.
3. How Are the Title I Funds Used? In our first year as a Title I school in 2004/2005, MCSM was required to operate under a Title I subprogram called Targeted Assistance. The basic idea of Targeted Assistance is that the money provided under Title I must be dedicated only to students who are clearly identified as being "at risk." According to the NY State Education Department, "at risk" is defined as having scored either a 1 or a 2 in the student's 8th Grade Math or English Language Arts exams or having failed a NY State Regents exam. At MCSM, only a little more than 14% of all students meet one of these criteria. Since it was very difficult in the first year to determine how to spend $850,000 on tutoring and other special assistance activities for just 14% of the students, MCSM turned back unused about $250,000 for 2004/2005. The following year, this number was reduced to about $90,000, and this year it is expected to be somewhere between $50,000 and $75,000 unspent.
4. What Alternatives Does MCSM Have for Using Its Title I Funds? The NCLB legislation provides two ways for a school to manage its Title I funds. One of them, Targeted Assistance, limits the use of these funds only to students who meet one of the "failure criteria" described above. The other option requires the parents, through the PTA, and the teachers to vote for a change from Targeted Assistance to what is called the Schoolwide Program option. Under the Schoolwide Program approach, the school administration and staff would determine which students were at risk, and all those students would be eligible to receive extra tutoring and other academic support services funded from the Title I money. Notice that under the Schoolwide Program option, we would not be required to wait for a student to actually fail before he or she became eligible for extra, Title I funded support. Teachers could identify students at risk of failing -- before they failed -- and make sure they received this extra assistance. In addition, parents of all students would be eligible for parental support programs funded out of the Title I money, not just the parents of students who had already failed.
5. How Can MCSM Change to the Schoolwide Program Option? Every year, the Principal, the President of the PTA, and the MCSM Chapter Leader of the Teachers' Union (the UFT) are required to meet in the Spring to decide if there will be a vote on the Title I question. In the first year (Spring, 2005), the Teachers' Union representative decided against having a vote. Last year (Spring 2006), a vote was held in which parents voted unanimously in favor of the Schoolwide Program option. A majority of teachers voted for that program as well, but their margin was not sufficient to carry the vote and MCSM remained under the Targeted Assistance option. We are hoping that another vote will be scheduled again for this Spring. If a vote will be held, we will announce it here on the Parents' Information Center and include it in PTA meeting discussions and the first possible Parent Newsletter. For parents, the vote -- if it takes place -- would most likely occur at the May 8 PTA meeting. If the vote takes place, we urge all parents to come to the PTA meeting and vote in favor of the Schoolwide Program option; your PTA Executive Board supports this choice unanimously.
6. What Are Parents' Roles in the Title I Program? First, parents have an important voice in determining whether their school will operate under the Targeted Assistance or Schoolwide Program option. This is done through voting for one of the two approaches at the PTA meeting in which this vote is held.
Second, we are required to have two parents act as our Title I Representative and Alternate. At a PTA meeting earlier this year, we announced that Don Redish and Rajinder Singh had agreed to assume these responsibilities for the balance of this school year.
Third, the NCLB law states that at least one percent of a school's Title I funds are to be made available for parent training and education programs. These can range from computer training workshops to presentations on health and hygiene, parenting skills, time management, recognizing adolescent substance abuse, weight management (obesity as well as anorexia or bulimia), and many other topics that can help us all be better guardians of our children and better assistants for their academics. We are hoping that the MCSM parent community will see the first of these initiatives next year. In future PTA meetings, we will be soliciting your ideas for programs and topics that you would like to see addressed.
Title I is somewhat complicated, but it also creates wonderful opportunities for the school and the PTA to help our kids and our parents, too. We will work hard to keep you informed of these opportunities and how you can help. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at mathman180@aol.com.
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